


Gentler Days

by kissmehardly



Category: New Mutants (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst, Dialogue Heavy, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26741140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissmehardly/pseuds/kissmehardly
Summary: Rahne and Dani have a heart-to-heart not long after Rahne's reconstruction.Contains general spoilers for the Krakoa ere.
Relationships: Danielle Moonstar/Rahne Sinclair
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	Gentler Days

Rahne spends her first weeks alive again researching. She discusses the nature of Heaven with Nightcrawler, and then the nature of love. She convinces Tabby to find out if Dani and Xi’an had followed the Krakoan trend and opened their relationship. (Were they ever been exclusive in the finds place? Rahne had made the deliberate decision to ignore them before her death). She found out that Storm had created a lovely alpine micro-climate in the mountains of Krakoa. Also, she goes to space.

On a day with no mutants to rescue, Rahne asks Dani if she would like to take a hike. Krakoa is a bit too warm for both of their tastes. Dani agrees, and they pack a picnic basket. While Rahne begins the journey on two legs, she shifts into her wolf form before long, in order to better experience the scent of pine and slowly cooling air. Dani scratches behind her ears. She always like hitching a ride in her wolf-mind and experiencing a more enhanced view of nature.

Eventually they reach a rocky outcropping where they can see the sea glimmering silver in the distance. Dani unwraps their sandwiches and watches with quiet amusement as Krakoa slowly digests the wrappings. They eat and chat lightly about the last few days, about island gossip and what friends of theirs are due to be repowered soon. Before long they are silent again. Rahne watches Dani from beneath her eyelashes as she finishes her food. She is beautiful as always, stretched out to better enjoy the sun. It’s now or never. Rahne has been rehearsing this moment in her head for days.

“Dani?”

“Yes?”

“Will you use your powers on me?”

“What?” Dani is not like Rahne. She does not find joy in her powers or use them casually.

“I want to show you my greatest- my greatest desire”

Dani sits up to stare into her eyes. Rahne can feel herself beginning to blush. And then the air between the shimmers, an image growing out of nothingness. Rahne and Dani together on a patch of grass, both of their eyes closed and clothes strewn all around them. Dani’s hair is loose and spread out on the ground like a halo. Their limbs are entwined, and their lips meet and then come apart again. 

Dani gasps and lets the illusion drop. Rahne squeezes her hands into fists to keep herself from shifting back into the wolf and bolting. 

“Is that really what you want?”

“Is your power ever wrong?”

Dani shakes her head and reaches slowly for her braid. Rahne watches, not daring to breathe as she begins to unwind. Once her black hair is entirely loose, she closes her eyes and leans forward. 

The kiss begins softly. Rahne feels completely enveloped by her best friend, by her scent and the skin of her palms. Rahne tilts her head and opens her mouth. Grips Dani’s hip in one hand, runs the other through her hair.  _ Her hair. _ She is no longer afraid of the wolf. Dani grabs her around the waist and they tilt into the grass.

  
  


Afterwards, they lie together, Danielle curled around Rahne. She slowly runs her hand up her stomach, to the hard jut of ribs, and then down to where the red hair trails from her navel.

“Why did we never do this before?” 

“We were so young. I didn’t know what I wanted.”

“Not as schoolgirls. But after. There was so much time.”

“We were away more often than we were together.” 

Dani buries her nose in Rahne’s neck. She always smelled like soil and pine forests, no matter where in the world they are.

“But why was that? Why did a wall go up between us? Was it when I went to Asgard?”

Rahne turned around to look Dani in the eye.

“I was afraid to let you know how much I loved you”

“Because we were girls?”

“No. Well, a little. But it was more complicated than that.”

“Please tell me.” Dani can feel her heart speed up with worry.

“Do you remember when we were students, and Magnus chased us into Limbo? We met lovely Robert the Bruce but then Illyana sent us to different futures?”

“Of course.”

“Remember how I went to an awful time when the world had been ruined by sentinels and you and Sam were the only New Mutants left?”

“Of course, love.”

“That Danielle was so different. Bitter. I thought you were so old, though I suppose not much more than we are now.”

“You’ve told me this before.”

“I never told you everything. She was that way because of  _ me _ . Her Rahne had died fighting senintels. Died in her arms, my voice in her mind.”

“Oh, Rahney.”

“She  _ fought death _ for me, Dani. Fought Death and loss. It broke her. I could feel that inside her mind.”

“Is that why you pulled away? Were you afraid of what I would become?”

“No! I was afraid of what I would do to you! Afraid that if you loved me so much, and lost me, it would cause you so much pain.”

Dani sat up in bed, her hair falling like a curtain around them both. 

“Do you think she ever doubted her choices? That either of them did?”

“Of course! I’m not worth all that!”

“You’re wrong!”

“How can you know that?”

“Because I have loved you every day for half my life, and never regretted it.”

“Even when I was so foolish?”

“No.”

“Even when I made so many mistakes?”

“No.”

“Even when I died?”

“Only that I could not hold you. I would fight that other Danielle to the death for the privilege.”

Rahne closes her eyes and presses herself into Dani’s chest.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I never want to leave you again…” 

“You never have to again. And I’ll never leave you.”

Rahne shifts half into the wolf, so that she can feel the truth of the statement in Dani’s mind. It’s overwhelming, a bright shimmering core of love. She takes a deep breath and opens herself to Dani. Her mind is just the same. Dani kisses her again and then they fall asleep entwined and wander into one another’s dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> The issue with the time-travel I reference is 48 of Claremont's original New Mutants run. Part of a really superlative stretch of comics.


End file.
